re: Official Auburn Football Spring Practice Thread - Spring Practice Complete

I would go Jones and Holsey. Then Mincy and Melton with Reed then Davis. I am just not sold on TJ yet.

Whitaker back in action

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Whitaker, always a vocal leader, took charge in other ways. On a young defensive line that featured three key freshmen in Carl Lawson, Elijah Daniel and Montravius Adams, Whitaker took the trio under his wing, offering them advice on how to handle playing as a true freshman on a big stage.

Auburn's injured players also gravitated to Whitaker.

"We were the injured clique. We used to go out and eat together and all that stuff. It was like I was helping everybody along, then somebody would go back to playing ball," Whitaker said. "They call me the 'old man' already. I had to do some mentoring."

Whitaker, who had been a freshman on the 2010 national championship team, knew how a team had to approach big wins and crazy moments.

In the aftermath of some of Auburn's biggest wins last season, Whitaker helped bring the team back to earth.

"The way I viewed myself coming back was everybody had that joy ride and the crazy finishes and all that, and I was going to have to be one of the guys to help bring us back down to reality," Whitaker said. "The reality is we have to keep working, and that now we are the hunted."

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GM: AU banged up, injuries not limited spring progress

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At least 13 players have been limited due to injuries this spring, including 11 on defense, which has led to only one major scrimmage before the A-Day game scheduled for Saturday.

"We’ve been a little bit banged up, but we know a lot more about our team than we did last year," Gus Malzahn said. "We have a lot more information, so we’ve been able to accomplish a lot even though we haven’t had as many scrimmages as we did last year. We’ve still had some very good 11-on-11 work and been able to really coach up the finer points of our offense and our defense."

Auburn had "some very good 11-on-11 work" while correcting mistakes and coaching the "finer points" of the offense and defense. The coaches utilized their first spring on the Plains in 2013 as a time to push players through as many game-like situations as possible in an attempt to separate the starters from the backups.

Auburn's A-Day scrimmage will include 12-minute quarters in the first half, but the format for the second half has not been set. Coaches will place the defense on one sideline and the offense on the other. The Tigers used a running clock in the second half last spring.

"You’re always as a coach looking to develop depth and quality depth and I think over the course of the spring we’ve come close to doing that," Malzahn said. "We’ve gotten better in some areas but like I’ve said it’ll be good for our coaches to see some of those younger guys, how they react. Just from a coach’s standpoint I want to see our guys flying around and getting after it and playing good, solid, hard-nose Auburn football."

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Negative. T Reed said himself in an interview that he thought cb was going to be a lot easier. He didn't realize it was going to be so tough hanging with the wr's. I imagine the coaches spewing sunshine about his spring at cb is just that (sunshine). I do hope he gets some meaningful snaps this season although he never lived up to his hype he's been great for the young players mentoring and such.

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If you know CEJ you know the one thing he is not is a sunshine pumper.

Per AUC

-Nick rolled his ankle in practice last Thursday & has been limited since
-Injury not serious but may only play a couple of series at A Day to take things a bit easy
-QBs will not be live

-CAP and Barber had huge Springs
-CAP set to be #1 RB to start the season
-AU will have a great 1 2 punch at RB
-Corey had a good Spring too and can run between tackles well if he is needed

-Marcus Davis had a great Spring & will be a big part of the O
-Very dependable WR & playmaking ability is underrated

-Dampeer one of the biggest surprises locked down #2 behind Reese

-big surprise how fast DQ & D-Mon have picked up the AU playbook & adjusted to the rigorous workouts

-Coaches have not praised Parks publicly but he is practicing well
-Academics are the key for if Ricky will have a big impact on the O

I remember during Big Cat Weekend being told that DCraig was all over Ruffin trying to get him to commit and Cortez McDowell was second fiddle. I was shocked at the time but the kid has gotten praise from everyone.

I have excited

I was told the same. And Cortez decided to take it personal. Now he gets to live in Knoxville, TN. I hate that town all the way to Oak Ridge, TN!

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Is the rain today and possibly for pre-game tomorrow a bit of witchcraft from Gus to allow us to train for "stiff dew" situations?

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A-Day bitches

If a player gets dinged in the season it often goes unmentioned and the player plays through it. If he gets a small injury in the Spring he sits out until it is healed. So it seems like more people get hurt during Spring.

I agree that he looked good for such a recent move, wish it would have happened years ago. Would be awesome to see him contribute on d this season.